What in the name of fucking hell?

This isn't about religion. This isn't about free speech. This isn't about an immigrant community expressing its disenchantment towards a repressive, racist government. This is about criminal behavior by a minister in the UP state government. (via Patrix)

The Minister for Minority Welfare and Haj in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, Haji Yaqoob Qureishi, has announced a cash reward of Rs 51 crore for anyone who beheads the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Prophet Mohammad.

Why isn't this man in prison right now? Didn't he just blatantly commission the murder of an individual? Is murder now legal in our democracy? Well no, not quite, according to this guy :

When contacted, UP Principal Secretary, Home, Alok Sinha told The Indian Express: “The minister’s reaction was the voice of someone whose religious sentiments have been hurt. Moreover, since the reference was to a person who is far off, there is no question of an FIR being lodged against the minister.”

So apparently anyone can now order a hit on someone who is "far off". What the hell does far off mean? Far off distance-wise? Travelling-time wise? Emotional-involvement wise? Can I order a hit on Mr. Alok Sinha, since he's "far off" for me? Can Dawood Ibrahim now order a hit on the Prime Minister of India by this logic, since he's far off? What the fuck? I mean, what the fuck, man? Is this what India has been reduced to now? A middle-eastern theocracy with individuals possessing unlimited powers to spew anything they want in the name of religion?

For no matter how much we try to deny it, the only reason this kind of criminal behavior is being tolerated is because of its religious aspect. Because the minister is Muslim and his beef is with someone who apparently "insulted his religion". And if it were a Hindu Shiv Sainik who ordered the hit on someone who might have, say, drawn the Goddess Laxmi and the Goddess Saraswati getting it on with a double-ended dildo, that would have been tolerated as well. Why? Because the "secular" fabric of our democracy dictates not that the government pander to no religion at all,according to the colloquial meaning of secularism, but that it pander to all religions equally.

In today's India, you can carry out just about any act of questionable legality and get away with it as long as you justify it in the name of religion. Fuck, try breaking a few shop windows and justify it by saying, you know, I just felt like breaking those windows 'cause it gives me a warm feeling in my loins. Boy, today just felt like a good window-breaking day. And sue me if the next day you don't wake up in a jail cell and find the Superintendent of Police spooning your sorry ass, massaging your prostate with one hand and jacking you off with the other, all the while murmuring sweet nothings in your ear. But break those windows invoking The Lord Shiva or the prophet Mohammed, sir, they will say, please carry on, and let us know when you are done so that we can issue our official line condemning your actions at a suitably belated point in the future. Oh and here are some stones you might find useful to aid you in your endeavour.

The point is, issuing a hit, no matter on whom, no matter how far that person is, no matter what the justification, is such a blatant act of criminality that if the UP government fails to issue a statement of retraction, the federal government should step in and dissolve the assembly. Yes, it is that serious. A state government that condones a shamelessly blatant call for a murder by one of its office-holders, no matter if its that of a foreign citizen, does not deserve to be in power.

And for us, as a people, standing back, watching the circus, saying "Chalta hai yaar, this is politics" will not do. Somewhere someone has to draw the line. If anything, our politicians and leaders should be held to a higher standard of sanity and ethical behavior than the ordinary fundamentalist lunatic on the street. Otherwise God help us, figuratively speaking.

Update :

One commenter who, for reasons of privacy, I will call shiv, suggested that I am on shaky legal ground while arguing for the prosecution of abovementioned lunatic minister. The following excerpts from the Indian Penal Code prove that I am not.

Abetor : A person abets the doing of a thing, who -

First- Instigates any person to do that thing;

A person abets an offence, who abets either the commission of an offence, or the commission of an act which would be an offence, if committed by a person capable by law of committing an offence with the same intention or knowledge as that of the abettor.

A instigates B to murder C. B refuses to do so. A is guilty of abetting B to commit murder.

In fact, since Mr Qureishi's call for the murder was directed to everyone in general including me, this proves that if I were to refuse to kill the Danish cartoonist, Mr Yaqoob Qureishi would automatically turn into a felon in the eyes of the law.

In addition, the Penal Code also explicitly states the punishment for such a crime.

"Whoever abets the commission of an offence punishable with death or ⁵¹[imprisonment for life], shall, if that offence be not committed in consequence of the abetment, and no express provision is made by this Code for the punishment of such abetment, be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine;"

So here it is. I, gawker (not my real name), of sound mind and sound judgement, refuse to kill the Danish cartoonist. There. Mr Qureishi is now officially a criminal. Hope you have a great 7 years Mr. Qureishi.